Amy Reeder makes us even more excited about “Batwoman #1″

I realized last week that I’ve been so caught up whining about DC’s multiple delays and Greg Rucka’s decision to leave the series that I’ve completely neglected Amy Reeder, the only female member of Batwoman’s new team. Let’s take a minute to rectify that now, shall we?

We had it set up that I would do variants for J.H. [Williams III]’s run and he would do variants for mine (meaning, the main covers during my arc would be drawn by me). AND I got to ink and color these, which really got my creative juices flowing. It’s been a while since I’ve had that opportunity and I had a blast! So, I’d done four of the five variants, when I had found out that DC decided not to publish any variant covers on Batwoman.

Sheesh, DC. Look at your life. Look at your choices. These things are gorgeous. I’d buy this one as a framed print for my office right this second.

But this post isn’t about DC’s incompetence; it’s about the awesomeness of Amy Reeder, who will be taking over Batwoman’s interior art from Williams for the story’s second arc. Reeder isn’t actually a classically trained comic book artist. She graduated from college with a teaching degree, and while she was looking for a job, she decided to enter a 20-page manga contest, which she went on to win. After working for a while with TokyoPop, she caught the attention of DC editors, and now she’s drwaing one of the most celebrated books in the industry.

I think one of my strengths is that I’m good at really capturing a character and what they’re all about. Batwoman hasn’t been drawn or written by many and here is the perfect opportunity to make her someone specific and undeniably recognizable…untainted by years of straying interpretations. So I hope that when people read my issues, they feel like this is Batwoman. [She] has to feel real, like you can smell the dirt on her heel. And she needs to be dealt with in a way that takes her very seriously. To a certain degree, she should scare you.

After seeing Reeder’s variant covers — click through to her blog to have a look at all four of them! — and listening to her talk about her vision for Batwoman, I am psyched on her second-arc art run.

What do you think of Reeders’ variant covers? Will you be picking up a copy of Batwoman #1 next week?